


One Mind, Any Weapon

by purplenerd777



Category: The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: Found Family, Gen, M/M, Post Merrick
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-12
Updated: 2021-01-12
Packaged: 2021-03-16 22:14:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,274
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28714119
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/purplenerd777/pseuds/purplenerd777
Summary: Nile may be new to immortality, but she isn't new to training, and she's not going to give up anytime soon. But, when the others insist she needs a back up weapon finding one right for her might take a while.
Relationships: Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova, Nile Freeman & Andy | Andromache of Scythia, Nile Freeman & Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani, Nile Freeman & Nicky | Nicolo di Genoa
Comments: 9
Kudos: 102





	One Mind, Any Weapon

**Author's Note:**

> Hey everyone, this is my first writing I've posted in a little under two years but I am determined in 2021 to post some fics, and guess what fandom I've recently fallen into? 
> 
> The T rating is for swears.

The fifth time Nile hits the mat when sparring against Joe is the time she just lays and feels sorry for herself. Not for the fact that she’s immortal, the others of the group were helping her get used to the fact fairly easily after Merrick's. No, it’s more along the fact that Joe has only been  _ toying _ with her and he’s still managed to bring her down so quick it doesn’t even bear pointing it out.

“Need a break?” Nicky calls out from the sideline of the impromptu sparring ring they had set up in the safe house Copley provided them with.

“Fuck, no I don’t need a break.” She bites out pushing herself back up and grabbing her pistol before squaring up against Joe once more.

Joe makes eye contact with Nicky, and Nile tries to press the advantage, but as soon as she pulls the trigger Joe flips his scimitar such that she’s disarmed once again and the shot goes wide. She would be happy, she doesn’t really enjoy hurting her new family, but it wouldn’t hurt if just one shot landed, right?

“Give yourself a break.” Andy orders as she steps up and grabs the discarded pistol before Nile has the chance to. 

“I need to practice!” Nile says, and it does not come out like a whine, but it does feel like talking back to her superior, or worse her mother, and she steps back a bit when she comes face to face with Andy’s disapproving glare.

“Joe’s been using that thing for nearly a milenia now, you’re not gonna get the drop on him unless in an ambush or you have the numbers.” Andy explains, gesturing with the gun in a horrible lack of firearm safety.

“Just cause you were immortal-- Jesus, give me that!” Nile says, and takes the pistol back from the now squishy mortal.

She checks the safety and tucks it into her sidearm holster she’s taken to carrying on her at all times in the months since she found out about all of this.

Andy doesn’t seem perturbed. “You’d be better off learning to use a melee weapon for back up anyway.”

“Yeah, let me just quickly pick up fencing or something.” Nile scoffs. 

“Doesn’t have to be that formal.” Joe cuts in.

“Yea and I don’t have some antique that I learned to fight with. I’m a marine, I have guns and,” she bulges her biceps, “guns.” It at least gets a laugh from Joe and Nicky, and she thinks she knows Andy well enough by now to see a slight uptick of her lips.

“We didn’t have formal training either.” Andy offers, like that makes it any better.

Nile rolls her eyes and doesn’t bother to say how that statement, surprisingly, doesn’t make her feel any better.

“We’ll teach you. You pick.” Nicky says, his longsword sitting comfortably on his hip, Andy’s labrys leaning against the wall, easy to reach within a couple strides.

“But, guns.” Nile protests even as she eyes Andy’s labrys, remembering how cool and deadly the other woman was with it.

“Guns run out of ammo.” Andy retorts, crossing her arms. “You’ll always have something to fall back on with a melee weapon.” 

“You guys use guns all the damn time!” Nile can recognise she’s not proving her point that she’s not a kid to the older immortals, but honestly maybe she does have a little fun being the ‘baby’ of the group.

“And we still fall back on our other resources when needed. The time Copley sold us out to Merrick in South Sudan we really only avoided capture because the black ops had run out of ammo and had to reload and we could fall back on our skills.” Andy says. It's not particularly comforting, but it is Andy’s attempt at it.

“Melee weapons are good for stealth missions.” Nicky chimes in, damn sniper that he is. 

“Fine!” She looks at the three weapons around her, her eyes linger on the labrys, and before she has a chance to say anything Andy is tossing it to her. She doesn’t fumble or drop it, she’s had training before dammit, but it does feel unwieldy in her hands.

“Let’s get started.” Andy grins and steps into the ring, setting up in a fighting stance only to be stilled by an in unison cough from Joe and Nicky.

It’s a sound that’s gotten fairly common around the safe house anytime Andy forgets her newfound mortality. 

She grits her teeth and grinds out, “let’s start with the grip.” 

Nile thinks they’re gonna spend days just working on the basics of handling the weapon before she gets a chance to swing it at a dummy let alone one of the others, but it’s only an hour until Andy nods, seemingly satisfied and gestures to Joe to step in for her, his scimitar once again in his hand.

“You’re nuts!” Nile exclaims, bewildered and stunned until Joe takes a swing.

“Practice makes perfect.” Andy calls out, “Widen your stance.” And it seems like they’re really doing this. 

After a day long sparring session where they only stop for lunch, Nile is sore, and this immortal thing really isn’t worth it because she doesn’t even have the bruises to show for it.

“It’s mostly your muscles getting used to it.” Joe reminds her as he helps her off the mat and hands the labrys off to Andy. Nicky had headed upstairs an hour or so ago to start on dinner. 

“So, thoughts?” Nicky asks as he places a plate of some fancy, definitely not boxed mac and cheese, in front of her. For a moment she allows herself to be touched that he remembered that time she mentioned off-handedly that Kraft mac and cheese was her comfort food.

She’s silent for a moment, shoveling mac and cheese into her mouth. “I didn’t hate it?” 

The other’s frown. “We’ll find something more instinctual.” Joe offers and in a flash he and Nicky are throwing fists into their palms over and over until on the eleventh time Nicky covers Joe’s fist with the palm of his hand.

“You two have been together for how long and you settle debates with rock-paper-scissors?” Nile asks, her forkful of mac forgotten in awe.

“Solves a lot of problems.” Andy shrugs. She doesn’t have a bottle of vodka with her, she’s been cut back since her liver won’t just regrow anymore but she does smile into her glass of shitty wine.

“We’ll try the longsword tomorrow, yes?” Nicky asks, and Nile knows it’s not a suggestion.

“Sure.”

The next day doesn’t go any better than the first. In fact, Nile would say it goes worse. The longsword, or Knightly sword, as Joe calls it in his little history lecture before the fighting starts, may have been the lighter weapon of choice back in the day, but it’s a bitch compared to the labrys of yesterday. Whereas Nile could have seen herself having a gun in one hand and axe in the other, it takes two hands to make the longsword even come close to approaching her target.

Nicky, however, is an infinitely more patient teacher than Andy, but again,  _ snipers  _ she thinks to herself.

At the end of the day they huddle over two frozen pizzas because it’s Andy’s turn to cook that night.

“So, no to the longsword.” Nile says apologetically but Nicky just waves her off.

“There’s a reason only two Crusades succeeded.” Joe teases.

Nile isn’t sure what she expects but a flash of guilt across Nicky’s face before relaxing into a fond teasing smile probably isn’t it. 

“So, thoughts on the scimitar?” Joe asks, his hand coming to rest at the base of Nicky’s neck where he squeezes it once before Nicky places a kiss on his knuckles.

Nile allows herself a moment of thought before her lips quirk in a smile, “Can’t say I like it pointed at my neck.”

The next day the scimitar is  _ much _ lighter than either weapon before it, but she doesn’t get any sort of the easy finesse with it that Joe can, although no surprise there. But, to add insult to injury it’s once again Joe she’s sparring against, but this time he has Nicky’s longsword in hand.

“Come on, really?” She asks the first time he easily disarms her with his husband’s sword.

“I know, Yusuf, you’re getting slow.” Nicky chides with a fond smile from the sideline as Andy chuckles along, her face a lot more mellow as she watches them train.

“Excuse me if _heathen_ ,” Joe rolls his eyes and smiles at some in-joke “swords are so unwieldy.” He turns and looks at what Nile knows must be an appalled expression on her face. “It’s why I have a higher score than Nicolo.”

Nile stares between the two, scimitar almost forgotten at her side. She scans their faces to see if she can find the joke. And there is, somewhere but it might just be her lack of experience that means she can’t find it. 

“Not true, we’re even with Zurich.” Nicky says.

“Zurich doesn’t count.”

“What happened in Zurich?” Nile asks Andy.

“Nicky shot through Joe to get a target.” She says as if it’s nothing serious, as if shooting your supposed soulmate is normal. She may not have had a relationship that’s lasted longer than six months but she’s fairly sure that’s not something you joke about.

“And now we’re even.” Nicky repeats.

“Boss!” Joe turns to Andy who shrugs.

“Don’t look at me Booker was the one keeping score.” The already weird mood takes a further nose dive when Andy realises what she said. 

A flash of realisation strikes Nile and she looks down at the scimitar, “So, these swords?”

“Would probably go for millions to a collector.” Andy offers, she nods at her labrys, “Maybe billions.”

“I mean, I know it’s only been a few months but I don’t know if I’ll get used to this.” Nile whispers.

“You know,” Nicky says, taking the scimitar from her hand and putting it in Joe’s scabbard. “We haven’t asked you what your background is. We should have started with that.”

Nile shrugs and approaches the punching bag they shoddily attached to the ceiling. Throws a few punches before saying, “After my dad died my mom put me into boxing.” She strikes with her fists a few times before kneeing the bag. “And then for training we all learned MCMAP.” She strikes the bag with a few more kicks. “One mind, any weapon” She recites with a scoff at the irony, “If I remember all the shit we had drilled into us it mixed boxing, judo, karate, krav maga.” She hits the bag with each word. “Savate.” Catches the bag with both hands as it swings around. “Whole bunch of different shit, probably could have gone up against an MMA fighter by the time I was done.” 

“Savate?” Andy asks.

“Yea?” Nile says and turns to face the others.

Joe says something, scathing by the sounds of it, in Italian and Nicky cuts in with a hand on his shoulder, “Sebastien was partial to knives.”

Nile feels wrong footed, she doesn’t know for certain who Sebastien is, but maybe judging from everyone’s expressions it’s one of Booker’s names. “I trained some with knives.”

Andy shakes her head. “They’re fine, but you may want something with a little more reach.” She rubs her forehead. “Let’s call it for the day.” She turns to Joe and Nicky, “Do some research on US Marine fighting, see if there’s anything there that will help.” 

Nile, glad to be done for the day, follows the others up and when she passes Andy she offers, “Sorry I brought up Booker.” 

“We need to get used to it sooner or later. Don’t worry about it kid, get some rest.” 

“You know what sucks about all this?” Nile asks, a small grin gracing her face as they all sit down for dinner that night.

The others look at her expectantly. “No other super powers besides the whole no dying thing. I mean no super fast reflexes, no super senses, not even like innate knowledge in weapon fighting.” She lets her grin get wider. “I’m starting to think comic books lied to me.” 

The tension hanging around the others fade and they pass the rest of the night with an easy camaraderie that Nile is only just starting to feel she may be able to find a place in.

She doesn’t know what Nicky and Joe find because the next day Andy’s left her a note on the kitchen table,  _ Out for a quick mission, Nicky says to practice the phrases he taught you. _

She picks the card up and is overwhelmed with the sudden urge to rip it up, but she only just stops herself. She makes her way down to the ‘gym’. She can practice languages while punching her frustration out.

After an hour long workout, a shower and breakfast she’s a little less pissed at the others but only marginally. She may be new to the whole immortality thing but she was a Corporal in the Marines for Chrissake, and she doesn’t care how good they are, the others are down a man and a half with Booker gone and Andy mortal now. 

What’s really rubbing her the wrong way, she thinks, as she does some crunches, is that she can’t tell what it is exactly that made the others leave her behind. Is it because she can’t fucking use another weapon? Is it because they think she’d be useless without one? She handled herself pretty fucking well rescuing them all from Merrick.

By the time night falls she’s worked herself back up to pissed again. And then she works herself up to worry and mildly panicked. The others didn’t tell her  _ how  _ quick the mission would be, and she doesn’t have any way to contact them aside from reaching out to Copley.

She stays up at the kitchen table eating a grilled cheese while staring at the door, willing the rest of her family to come home. When they finally all cross the threshold around midnight, Nile is just tired.

“You’re still up?” Nicky asks, a frown on his face.

“Yea, I didn’t know if I would have to rescue you all again.” Nile scoffed, fear and worry melting into anger.

Joe and Nicky flinch mildly and Andy gives her an unimpressed stare. 

“Why didn’t you bring me?” Nile asks, and she really hates how small her voice sounds.

“Nile-” Nicky tries to cut in.

“I’m a trained marine. I know I’m not, not a god! But I can handle myself!” Nile’s working herself up to a shout at this point, faintly glad that there are no neighbours within 10 miles of their safe house.

“Stand down.” Andy cuts in.

“Andy!”

“ _ Stand down _ .” She repeats firmly, and Nile instinctually falls into rest.

“Here.” Joe says placing a long wooden stick in front of her, beautifully polished.

“What is this?” She asks.

“Bo staff.” Andy answers before grabbing a bottle of vodka and heading upstairs.

Nile raises a hand to reach out and touch before stopping herself and looking at Joe and Nicky. 

“We had a mission, and we’re sorry we didn’t take you out, but it was quick and we, well we should have brought you.” Nicky offers.

“It was quick.” Joe chimes in. “What wasn’t quick was finding this, you’d be surprised how few martial arts shops are open this late.” 

“Doubt it. But why a bo staff?” She asks. 

“We did research into MCMAP, it took longer without--without...” Joe trails off seemingly even unwilling to say Booker’s name. “But we saw pugil sticks and we thought this was at least a starting off point.” 

“But the mission.” Nile repeats because as touched as she is by the gift and the thought behind it, she’s still hurt and more than a littlepissed.

“We may be a little over protective.” Joe concedes and Nile scoffs, but if it sounds watery none of them comment on it. “We can afford to be this time around.” He says. 

“You’re not a child.” Andy says, and either she didn’t go far to begin with or the woman  _ does  _ have super hearing, or at least super timing or something. “But we threw Booker into everything too fast, we’re not making the same mistake twice.” 

Nile nods, her fingers running over the smooth wood of the bo staff. “Alright.” 

“Training starts tomorrow.” Andy says.

“Fine, any of you know how to use one of these?” She asks as she hefts the staff in her hand, and the weight does feel familiar a little bit.

The others are silent and she looks around at their almost sheepish expressions. “Fucking, of course you do.”

Training goes over much better than the other days. She’s not landing  _ hits,  _ and this time without a blade Joe and Nicky are allowing Andy to spar against her, and at least she’s not hitting the mat after every round. And it's doing wonders for her self confidence and with anyone else Nile would suspect Andy was going easy on her to do so… But it’s  _ Andy _ . 

But the bo  _ does  _ feel like the most natural thing she’s held in the past few days, and she may not have come close to bringing Andy down, but she has landed a few hits and a grin is spreading across her face and it almost feels like it’s going to split in two.

When they finally stop for a break her grin is matched by the others. “The matching look on your’s and Andromache’s faces.” Nicky laughs. 

And she turns back around and there it is, her own wild grin on Andy’s face. She gets it a little bit better now, the ferocity she had seen on the other woman’s face when they fought in the plane, before she had been too angry to enjoy herself, but now, sparring with Andy feels more like a dance than anything else.

“When you get more comfortable we’ll see if we can find one that won’t splinter apart.” Andy says.

“Maybe something collapsible. Is the weaponsmith in Kyoto still alive?” Joe wonders.

“We’ll go and check, if not he had an apprentice.” Andy shrugs, taking a sip of water before tossing the bottle to Nile. “How’s your Japanese?”

“Non-existent.” Nile smirks before taking a sip, wondering if she’s ever going to run out of things to learn. 

“Come, you’ve spent long enough on battle the past week, the mind needs sharpening too.” Nicky chides. Then he looks over her and the small little fond grin graces his features. “I’m sure you did not listen to my instructions yesterday.”

Nile opens her mouth to defend herself before closing it once more.

They all go upstairs, Joe cooking and correcting Nile’s accent on her Arabic and it’s comfortable and quickly becoming familiar before Andy’s phone begins to buzz. From where she’s sitting Nile can see Copley’s number flash across the screen.

“Boss?” Joe asks, turning off the stove.

“Pack up.” Andy orders and the other two go to follow, easy as anything. When Nile remains seated, not feeling bitter as she might have before Andy raises an eyebrow. “I said pack up. Leave the bo behind, it's too cumbersome for the moment.” 

Nile sits stunned for a moment before standing up, catching her own go bag that Joe tosses to her as Nicky does the same to Andy, both of theirs already strapped to their backs. “Yes boss.” 

**Author's Note:**

> For Reference, a labrys weighs about 250 g, a longsword weighs about 1000/1500 g, and a scimitar 122 g according to my research. I also based Nile’s fighting style etc based off of what I could find on Wikipedia and from interviews with the fight coordinator. The idea for Nile’s weapon to be the bo-staff came from the idea that it would fit with Nile not loving the idea of like absolute carnage like what Andy did in the church, the fact that it fit with what I could find with bare minimum research into the US Marine training page on Wikipedia, and the fact that I like to fight with a bo-staff.
> 
> Hope you all enjoyed my first foray into this fandom, if you did I live off of validation, thanks for reading!


End file.
